Rebeki ROOTs strategically in 2021

Keskustelu2021 ROOT CHALLENGE

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Rebeki ROOTs strategically in 2021

1Rebeki
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 30, 2020, 9:19 am

At a time when it's impossible to make plans and therefore difficult to find anything specific to look forward to, I'm delighted to be embarking on a new year of reading and ROOTing!

In 2020 I read more books than ever before - I'm sure I'm not alone in this! - including 25 ROOTs. If the last two days of the year go to plan, I'll be starting 2021 with a TBR total of 150 - it was 220 when I first started ROOTing, back in 2017, and has been steadily decreasing ever since. However, this number masks all the comfort- and panic-buying of books I did in 2020. Not wanting to demoralise myself further, I didn't add these books to my library and they became, instead, my "bookshop under the bed", to be drawn upon whenever I wanted the treat of a brand new book but was unable to just go to a shop and buy one. Well, as it happens, I didn't actually get round to reading any of them, so I'm determined that 2021 will be their year! They have now come out from under the bed and any that I don't manage to read in the coming year will be added to my TBR pile for the start of 2022.

In order to be as successful as possible in this ROOT prevention, I'm lowering my official ROOTs goal to 18 books and hoping to balance longstanding with new and shiny!

2Rebeki
Muokkaaja: marraskuu 26, 2021, 2:07 am

ROOTs read in 2021

1. The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken (Christmas present 2020)
2. Days in the Caucasus by Banine (birthday present 2020)
3. Dominicana by Angie Cruz (Christmas present 2020)
4. Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton (bought in 2013)
5. A Woman by Sibilla Aleramo (Christmas present 2020)
6. Introducing Philosophy by Dave Robinson (bought in 2006)
7. A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (Christmas present 2020)
8. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (Christmas present 2020)
9. Virgin Soil by Ivan Turgenev (bought in 2016)
10. The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson (Christmas present 2020)
11. An Academic Question by Barbara Pym (bought in 2015)
12. An Armenian Sketchbook by Vassily Grossman (Christmas present 2013)
13. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (bought in 2016)
14. Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard (bought in 2016)
15. Estoril by Dejan Tiago-Stanković (birthday present 2020)
16. Confusion by Elizabeth Jane Howard (bought in 2016)
17. Une forme de vie by Amélie Nothomb (bought in 2015)
18. Es gab keinen Sex im Sozialismus by Wladimir Kaminer (bought in 2019)

3Rebeki
Muokkaaja: joulukuu 26, 2021, 5:21 am

ROOT prevention - books acquired and read in 2021

1. The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante (bookshop under the bed)
2. Giant Days, Volume Eleven by John Allison (bookshop under the bed)
3. Happy Ever After: A Radical New Approach to Living Well by Paul Dolan (bookshop under the bed)
4. The Women in Black by Madeleine St John (bookshop under the bed)
5. Music Upstairs by Shena Mackay (bookshop under the bed)
6. Giant Days, Volume Twelve by John Allison (bookshop under the bed)
7. After Julius by Elizabeth Jane Howard (bookshop under the bed)
8. How to Be Famous by Caitlin Moran (bookshop under the bed)
9. Real Life by Brandon Taylor (bought April 2021, read April 2021)
10. Respectable: Crossing the Class Divide by Lynsey Hanley (bookshop under the bed)
11. Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers (bought May 2021, read June 2021)
12. Giant Days, Volume Thirteen by John Allison (bookshop under the bed)
13. Introducing Semiotics by Paul Cobley (bookshop under the bed)
14. The Winter War by Philip Teir (bookshop under the bed)
15. Giant Days, Volume Fourteen by John Allison (bookshop under the bed)
16. There's No Such Thing As An Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura (bought April 2021, read July 2021)
17. The Beautiful Summer by Cesare Pavese (bookshop under the bed)
18. Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker (bookshop under the bed)
19. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (bookshop under the bed)
20. Nine Lives by Bernice Rubens (bought July 2021, read August 2021)
21. The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili (birthday present 2021)
22. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild (bookshop under the bed)
23. Family Lexicon by Natalia Ginzburg (bookshop under the bed)
24. The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey (bookshop under the bed)
25. The Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg (bought July 2021, read November 2021)
26. Braised Pork by An Yu (bookshop under the bed)
27. Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva (birthday present 2021)
28. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (bought December 2021, read December 2021)

4Rebeki
Muokkaaja: elokuu 19, 2021, 2:58 am

7connie53
joulukuu 30, 2020, 10:20 am

Hi Rebecca, Glad you are back again. I love to see what you will read with your son!

8rabbitprincess
joulukuu 30, 2020, 10:26 am

Welcome back and have a great reading year! Looking forward to seeing what comes from the bookshop under the bed :)

9Jackie_K
joulukuu 30, 2020, 10:39 am

Hope you have a good reading year! I love the 'bookshop under the bed' idea!

10cyderry
joulukuu 30, 2020, 4:59 pm

Question - what is ROOT prevention?

Happy 2021 Reading!

11This-n-That
joulukuu 30, 2020, 10:44 pm

I hope you enjoy your 'bookshop under the bed' reading. I thought that was a clever way of describing your 2020 book purchasing. :-)

12Rebeki
joulukuu 31, 2020, 3:48 am

>7 connie53:, >8 rabbitprincess:, >9 Jackie_K:, >10 cyderry:, >11 This-n-That: Thanks, all, for visiting!

>10 cyderry: I've added to the heading in >3 Rebeki: to make things a bit clearer! Essentially, any new acquisitions I read. I've learnt that banning myself from buying books doesn't work, but I can at least read new books more or less as soon as I acquire them and stop that TBR total from getting bigger. This year the category is being stretched to include my "bookshop under the bed", of course...

13connie53
joulukuu 31, 2020, 4:43 am

>10 cyderry: I use ROOT prevention too. Of all the books I bought in 2020 (22 + 5 presents) I've only 2 left unread. So almost al my tree-books are ROOTs now.

14bragan
tammikuu 2, 2021, 12:34 pm

>1 Rebeki: It's almost reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who did ridiculous amounts of stress-induced and comfort-seeking book-buying in 2020. I think the "bookshop under the bed" is a clever and utterly charming way of responding to that! Even if it would make me itchy, myself, to have books in the house I hadn't cataloged yet. :)

15connie53
tammikuu 2, 2021, 12:40 pm

>14 bragan: O my! That would be itchy for me too. Not Cataloged!

16cyderry
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 4, 2021, 11:13 am

>12 Rebeki: oh, got it. I call mine Bookshelf Bootie and try to read at least 50% of what I acquire in the new year, but since I only read about 100-120 books a year, and my acquisitions are usually increases to my TBRs.

2020 I read 123 books - acquired 124 - see what I mean? Some of the acquisitions (ARCs) are counted as ROOTs but I have 20 books that I acquired that added to the ROOTs this year.

17floremolla
tammikuu 2, 2021, 4:43 pm

Happy new reading year, Rebecca! You've reminded me I need to update my ROOT prevention list.... :)

18Rebeki
tammikuu 3, 2021, 1:13 pm

>14 bragan: >15 connie53: I know what you mean about having uncatalogued books, but I just couldn't bear to see the TBR numbers go up when I've been doing such a good job of lowering them over the last few years. Especially as I would definitely not have gone so mad buying books if it weren't for the pandemic. I hope you're being forgiving of yourself, bragan, as there were definitely extenuating circumstances! Another trick I've used is presenting my husband with a pile of books and telling him they're his birthday or Christmas present to me. It's win-win, as he doesn't have to worry about what to get me :)

>16 cyderry: I see your problem there, Chèli. With the exception of last year, I now manage to read more books from my shelf than I acquire in a year (thanks to this group!), but I'd probably be in more trouble if I read e-books, for instance.

>17 floremolla: Happy New Year, Donna. Glad to see you back, and I hope we both have an excellent year of ROOTing and ROOT prevention!

19Rebeki
tammikuu 3, 2021, 1:18 pm

>13 connie53: Managed to miss this. Wow, you did a great job of reading your new acquisitions last year!

20connie53
tammikuu 3, 2021, 1:24 pm

There were only a small part of the books I've read in 2020. That were 136 books, so 25 books is just a small part of the total. But thanks. I made a point of reading them.

21bragan
tammikuu 4, 2021, 7:53 pm

>18 Rebeki: Yes, I think I have managed to forgive myself. I just tell myself that, as far as book-buying goes, what happened in 2020 stays in 2020! Even I'm still going to be reading those new acquisitions for quite some time yet. :)

And that Christmas present trick is hilarious and ingenious!

22MissWatson
tammikuu 5, 2021, 8:55 am

Oh, great to see you again! Love the detailed ROOT prevention planning!

23Rebeki
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 8, 2021, 12:56 pm

>22 MissWatson: Thanks! It's important at the moment to feel I have control over at least one aspect of my life!

24Rebeki
tammikuu 8, 2021, 1:00 pm

I finished my first ROOT of the year this morning, the quirky, entertaining and slightly puzzling The Waiter by Matias Faldbakken. It was a Christmas present, so hadn't been on my shelf long, but it's still one more book off the TBR.

25Rebeki
Muokkaaja: helmikuu 3, 2021, 1:44 pm

January was a slow ROOTing month, with just one ROOT read, but I now have two ROOTs on the go, so will be back on track for my modest goal in February.

I'm very pleased that I managed three books from my "bookshop under the bed". My aim is to get through the majority of these in the first half of the year, so this was a good start.

I'm continuing my Harry Potter re-read/film watching in 2021 and have just finished the fifth and longest book. It'll be nice to have time for some other, shorter books this month!

Favourite book read in January: The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante

26connie53
helmikuu 4, 2021, 3:36 am

Hi, Rebecca. Good to hear your "bookshop under the bed" has 3 books less. Do you know how many books are stashed there?

Go get those ROOTs!

27Rebeki
helmikuu 4, 2021, 2:44 pm

>26 connie53: Good question! I've just counted and there are 24 left, though three of those are graphic novels and only a couple of the books are particularly long. The good thing is they're all books I'm excited to read and that in itself is suppressing any book-ordering urges I might otherwise have! I'm very proud of making it through one month of 2021 without buying a book :)

28Rebeki
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 7, 2021, 4:45 am

My reading has slowed right down over the last couple of weeks and I'm still reading the two ROOTs I'd hoped to finish by the end of the February, but I should finish them over the next few days. At the moment, my desire to read is much greater than my ability to actually concentrate on the words on the page!

February's standout reads were the ROOT Days in the Caucasus, a memoir of life in early-20th century Azerbaijan by Banine, and the non-ROOT The Women in Black by Madeleine St John, which I first read about in a newspaper interview with Hilary Mantel. I'll give pretty much anything recommended by Hilary Mantel a try and this was a well-written and entirely pleasurable read.

29Caramellunacy
maaliskuu 6, 2021, 1:26 pm

>28 Rebeki: "my desire to read is much greater than my ability to actually concentrate on the words on the page!"

I couldn't have said it better if I'd tried. Hang in there!

30Rebeki
maaliskuu 7, 2021, 4:47 am

>29 Caramellunacy: Thanks! The good news is I'm still managing to read a bit each day - just not as much as I'd like - so it's not exactly a reading slump :) And I've just finished a ROOT. Hurrah!

31connie53
maaliskuu 9, 2021, 2:34 am

>28 Rebeki: I think some reading fatigue is due to the time of the year. I suffer from it too. Hard to concentrate on a book with my mind on things that go wrong with Covid and my husbands mental state. But it varies each day and with spring almost here it gets better.
I'm glad you got to finish one. Keep it up!

32Rebeki
maaliskuu 15, 2021, 2:20 pm

>31 connie53: I'm sorry you're having trouble concentrating too. For me it was a combination of work and the pandemic. I find it hard to switch off from work at the best of times, but having to constantly adapt to new situations as a result of the disruption caused by the pandemic is both draining and distracting. That was an awkward sentence, but hopefully you get what I mean!

Things are a bit better now and it's the Easter holidays soon, so I hope to do some good reading then. I hope your husband's doing well and that you're having some good reading days. The lighter mornings are really lifting my mood :)

33connie53
maaliskuu 17, 2021, 1:38 pm

>32 Rebeki: That are nice words, Rebecca, thank you. I'm doing better with my reading. Sometimes it's the books one reads that are not right for the time of for your mindset. I'm now reading a book I really enjoy. That helps a lot.
Peet is doing better too. I think the therapy he gets is starting to work. Keeping my fingers crossed for that.

34Rebeki
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 24, 2021, 2:44 pm

>33 connie53: I'm glad your reading's picked up and I hope things are improving with Peet too. I agree that there are right and wrong times for books. I now try to have a couple of quite different books on the go at a time so that I can read according to my mood.

I'm happy because I've finished a third ROOT for March - the absorbing but emotionally draining A Woman by Sibilla Aleramo - and should therefore have earned myself a star for the first time in 2021!

35Rebeki
maaliskuu 27, 2021, 2:35 pm

Today is my 13th Thingaversary. I am definitely NOT giving myself permission to buy 13 (or is it 14?) books...

36Jackie_K
maaliskuu 27, 2021, 2:40 pm

Happy Thingaversary! I've decided (given that I'm trying to get Mt TBR lower, not higher) that I'm just going to count the books that I acquire through the year for my Thingaversaries, rather than buying extra. It's hard though, when my wishlist is so enormous, I could buy a Thingaversary haul a hundred times over!

37Rebeki
maaliskuu 27, 2021, 2:51 pm

>36 Jackie_K: Thanks! And that's a good idea - maybe I'll try to limit myself to 13 new books this year (excluding birthday and Christmas presents, of course!). I'm actually at the point where the dismay at adding to my TBR pile outweighs the pleasure of a new book and, with no browsing in bookshops possible, I've managed not to buy any books so far this year. I do have a countdown app on my phone that's currently counting down to 12 April, when bookshops reopen, so I may permit myself to buy one book then!

38Jackie_K
maaliskuu 27, 2021, 5:24 pm

>37 Rebeki: Er, I must admit I don't *limit* my book buying to the number of years I've been on LT (I'll have exceeded that already this year!). I hear you about the sort of stress at adding to the TBR pile - I'll never not love getting a new book or ten, but I am now so aware of how many I already have to read that there's also a bit of an 'erk' moment among the book joy :)

39Rebeki
Muokkaaja: maaliskuu 28, 2021, 3:57 am

>38 Jackie_K: Oops, I seem to have taken your idea one step further, but incorporating your Thingaversary books into your annual purchases seems a good way of ensuring at least some guilt-free acquisitions :)
To be honest, even 13 books over one year plus gifted books is too many for me, with my relatively slow reading pace (I say "relatively" because I read a lot compared to people I know IRL, just not when comparing myself to the average LT-er!).

40MissWatson
maaliskuu 28, 2021, 8:40 am

Happy thingaversary!

41rabbitprincess
maaliskuu 28, 2021, 10:30 am

I think it was sallylou61 who had the brilliant idea of buying a book that contained 13 short stories, or the number of stories appropriate to her Thingaversary. You could also buy $13 worth of books at a secondhand bookstore, or donate 13 books to a local school, or find some other way of commemorating Lucky 13 :)

I'm up to 10 myself and will just count my first 11 purchases toward the Thingaversary total. So far I've bought 6 books: two print, two audio (through Libro.fm, which I have a monthly subscription for), and two pre-orders of print books.

42Rebeki
maaliskuu 28, 2021, 3:01 pm

>41 rabbitprincess: Great suggestions. Spending £13 at my local secondhand bookshop (when it reopens) particularly appeals. If prices are the same, I should get five or six books for that amount, which is not too crazy a number!

43connie53
huhtikuu 3, 2021, 12:52 pm

>35 Rebeki: Hi Rebecca. What a good plan, but I fear I'm with Jackie on the book buying exceeding my Thingaversary 12 + 1. I've bought 9 books this year so I can only buy 4 books in the next 9 months.

That really is undoable for me.

Happy Thingaversary and Happy Easter.

44Rebeki
huhtikuu 4, 2021, 3:57 pm

>43 connie53: Ha ha, those gifs made me chuckle. Four books across nine months would make me panic too, so I'll let you off ;)
I do think it's achievable for me, especially as I have a summer birthday, which is nicely placed for converting any excess book purchases in the first half of the year into presents, with Christmas able to do the same job for the second part of the year.

It's a little late in the day, but Happy Easter to you and your family!

45Rebeki
huhtikuu 20, 2021, 12:43 pm

46Rebeki
huhtikuu 20, 2021, 12:54 pm

Two weeks off for the Easter holidays has given my reading a boost and I've already finished five books this month, two of them ROOTs. Things will slow down a bit now the new school term has started, but I have got a bit more momentum now. I've also discovered the app Bookly, which is making me want to set more time aside for reading. You can't beat a productivity app :)

It was lovely to be able to browse in bookshops again as of 12 April, but I'm pleased to report that I was incredibly restrained and bought just three books, one of which I am already halfway through! The plan is to read another one shortly and to save the third, the very long The Eighth Life (for Brilka), to be a birthday present. I'm so happy I was able to indulge in some book shopping while not doing too much damage to my TBR!

47MissWatson
huhtikuu 21, 2021, 2:57 am

Yay for visiting bookshops! I admire your restraint in buying.

48Rebeki
huhtikuu 22, 2021, 1:18 pm

>47 MissWatson: I surprised myself!

49connie53
Muokkaaja: huhtikuu 23, 2021, 4:55 am

>46 Rebeki: Sounds interesting!

50rabbitprincess
huhtikuu 23, 2021, 5:19 pm

Hurray for bookshops! I miss them so.

51Rebeki
elokuu 19, 2021, 3:14 am

Oh dear. Other than to update my reading lists, I've neglected this thread.

ROOTs read April to July:

Introducing Philosophy by Dave Robinson
A Girl Returned by Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Virgin Soil by Ivan Turgenev
The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson
An Academic Question by Barbara Pym
An Armenian Sketchbook by Vassily Grossman

It's quite hard to pick one favourite from that list, but, at a push, I'd say The Vanishing Futurist, which really engrossed me.

52Rebeki
elokuu 19, 2021, 3:35 am

As expected, I'm ROOTing pretty slowly this year, but I've been doing well at reading new acquisitions, including the ones I panic-bought last year and which I finally entered in Library Thing in May. I started the year with 27 to read, but now have only 11 left. I'm expecting to carry over a few into next year when they'll count as ROOTs, but would like to get more out of the way before then.

The combination of my birthday in July and the summer holidays means I've acquired more books recently. It's a race against time to get the TBR pile down before Christmas presents add to it! Unfortunately it may be a while before I finish another book. I'm currently reading The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischvili (birthday present) and The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (ROOT), both of which are excellent, but not exactly quick reads.

53connie53
elokuu 29, 2021, 8:08 am

Good to hear the Brilka book is excellent so far. I have that on my kobo to read but are hesitating since it's such a big, big, big book.

54Rebeki
syyskuu 2, 2021, 12:38 pm

>53 connie53: I have the paperback and it's 944 pages of very small print, so will take me a long time to get through at my current rate of 25ish pages a day! However, it's not a dense read and is only difficult in the sense of being emotionally harrowing at times. I'm actually finding it quite the page turner now, so am frustrated that I no longer have so much time for reading now the new school year has started.

55connie53
syyskuu 7, 2021, 5:00 am

Maybe I should try it when I've reached my ROOT goal for this year.

56Rebeki
Muokkaaja: tammikuu 1, 2022, 10:48 am

Well, I neglected this thread over the last few months, but I managed to meet my goal of 18 ROOTs in November. I thought I might exceed it, but December turned out not to be an especially good month for reading.

Reading achievements of 2021:
18/18 ROOTs read;
20/27 books read from the "bookshop under the bed" (2020 pandemic panic purchases!);
Finally started: Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles, all five books of which have been on my shelf since 2016;
currently reading book 4;
Completed: Harry Potter reread;
Annual Dickens: Oliver Twist;
South Caucasus mini-theme: Days in the Caucasus (Azerbaijan), An Armenian Sketchbook (Armenia) and The Eighth Life (for Brilka) (Georgia);
Soviet mini-theme: the above books, plus The Vanishing Futurist, Es gab keinen Sex im Sozialismus, Good Citizens Need Not Fear and, at a stretch, Virgin Soil;
Italian mini-theme: A Woman, A Girl Returned, The Days of Abandonment, The Beautiful Summer, Family Lexicon and The Dry Heart;

Biggest reading pleasures:
The Women in Black by Madeleine St John
Days in the Caucasus by Banine
The Vanishing Futurist by Charlotte Hobson
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard

Most interesting new discoveries:
Natalia Ginzburg
Olga Tokarczuk

57connie53
tammikuu 1, 2022, 10:51 am

Congrats, Rebecca on meeting your goal.

58rabbitprincess
tammikuu 1, 2022, 11:00 am

Congrats on meeting your goal! I'm reading Oliver Twist at the moment :)

59Rebeki
tammikuu 1, 2022, 12:14 pm

>57 connie53: >58 rabbitprincess: Thanks, both! I’m excited now about setting up my 2022 thread.
>58 rabbitprincess: What a great start to your reading year!